About

Pella Demetriades founded the practice after fifteen years inside regulated financial services. Her career moved from building and leading legal functions to taking responsibility for the institution itself, and the work she undertakes now reflects both perspectives.

In 2022, Cerberus appointed her to establish a licensed financial institution in a jurisdiction where the group had no existing presence. She assembled the advisers and management team, prepared the licence application, appeared before the Central Bank for the fit and proper assessment and built the AML and CFT framework. Following authorisation, she became chief executive, with responsibility for the business and a portfolio of approximately €3bn.

That appointment followed several years close to the issues that now bring clients to the practice. As Head of Legal at a credit servicer, she worked within a business holding approximately €7bn in servicing contracts. As Group Legal Advisor, Data Protection Officer and Company Secretary to a Cyprus Stock Exchange-listed group, she negotiated a refinancing exceeding €150m and led the legal work on the €228m disposal of real estate assets to the Bank of Cyprus. Earlier, she established the legal function of a regulated investment firm and sat on its Board of Executives.

Today, her work moves across regulatory compliance and licensing, M&A, restructuring, corporate governance, franchise and distribution arrangements, and the practical questions that arise when a business enters a new market. Lately that has included the governance questions that come with AI: accountability, documentation and the requirements of the EU AI Act. The common thread is that the advice must work within the financial, operational and regulatory position of the business, not beside it.

Pella is Cyprus Bar qualified, holds an MA in EU Competition Law from King's College London and the CySEC Advanced Certification, and has been recognised in the Legal 500 GC Powerlist for Greece and Cyprus. She is based in Athens and works across both markets.